The Video Game Critic

Have you ever bought a reproduction?

Re: Have you ever bought a reproduction?

Posted: June 22nd, 2017, 2:21 pm

by goldenband

I've bought a few SNES repros that require enhancement chips and can't otherwise be played on my Super EverDrive, e.g. StarFox 2 and Star Ocean. I also have one repro cart for the Atari 7800, a bug-fixed version of the otherwise-unwinnable Impossible Mission.

I've also bought tons of CIB releases of unreleased Intellivision games from BITD (some with exclusive bug fixes or other extra polish to improve the prototype), and have picked up a few Genesis repro carts by winning high score contests or raffles.

Otherwise, though, I mostly don't see the point of buying a cart of something I can just play on my flash cart -- especially if it irritates ROM hackers and fan translators, who aren't getting paid and don't want money to exchange hands for their work. I've personally translated a couple games and helped with a few others, and I don't care about repros of my work, but others certainly do.

OTOH I'd love to see more manual translations, as it's frustrating playing a game without knowing what you're "supposed" to know -- most walkthroughs tell you too much. I suppose they have to be carefully matched to an existing translation so that character names, item names, etc. are consistent.

I have to admit some of those Time Walk repros looked mighty nice, and the idea of sitting down to play a fan-translated game as if it were a real release -- i.e. with manual, map, and box -- is seductive.

Re: Have you ever bought a reproduction?

Posted: June 26th, 2017, 7:20 pm

by astrodomekid

I've been interested in finding a copy of Shantae (GBC), but it's pretty expensive (over $300) due to its rarity. Fortunately, there are reproduction copies that are as low as $30. I usually favor authenticity, but it seems that I don't have much of a choice if I wanna snag a copy.

Also, being an F-Zero fan I'd like to see English-translated copies of F-Zero Climax (GBA), the last game in the series thus far. Seriously, someone has to do it. Please... make it happen!